The invention comprises means for encapsulating and attaching a motion detector on surfaces of practically any orientation, whereas the detector thereafter easily can be turned, aligned and locked into a direction that is advantageous for the measurement application. The detector can thereafter easily and rapidly be removed and reinstalled without further need for re-alignment. The aim with the invention is to essentially lower the cost of installation and ownership and through a more accurate initial positioning form a basis for an installation calibration resulting in a better performance of the measurement.
In many measurement applications it is difficult to find a good location where the sensor or measurement instrument can be installed. Depending on the type of sensor and the measurement application it sometimes might be advantageous to install the unit in a location only surrounded by inclined surfaces, despite that the proper functionality would require the sensor to be turned differently. This is especially the case with motion detectors which, depending on the setup, should be installed in a particular location and/or direction relative to the body which motions will be measured. With a motion detector we here mean a sensor consisting either of either                a one, two or three dimensional accelerometer,        the aforesaid accelerometer with a one, two or three dimensional gyro,        the aforesaid accelerometer with a one, two or three dimensional magnetometer or        the aforesaid accelerometer with a one, two or three dimensional gyro and with a one, two or three dimensional magnetometer        
In the three latter cases the measurement axis or axes of the gyro, the magnetometer or both are assumed to be parallel with one, two or three of the accelerometer's axes. With a three dimensional accelerometer we understand a device that has three accelerometers, the measurement axes of which are perpendicular to each other. With a three dimensional gyro we understand a device that has three gyros, the measurement axes of which are perpendicular or in known angles to each other. Consequently a three dimensional magnetometer is a device that has three magnetometers, the measurement axes of which are perpendicular to each other. Correspondingly a two dimensional accelerometer or gyro or magnetometer has two axes which are perpendicular to each other.
Although there are motion detectors for many applications, the majority of motion detectors on the market are encapsulated in traditional box shaped enclosures intended for direct mounting on a flat surface. Sometimes these enclosures have mounting flanges or ears, which enable attachment on the wall without the need to open the detector cover. Also motion detectors with cylindrically shaped enclosures with or without mounting flanges are available. Some of the mounting flanges or ears have extended holes or grooves in order to enable fine adjustment.
Box shaped or cylindrical motion detector enclosures are well suited for many applications, but sometimes there is a need to install the detector on an inclined surface and if this is the case the detector must, depending on the application, often be installed on a wedge-shaped support or with long screws with nuts for fine adjustment or alternatively the measured motions must afterwards numerically be converted to another coordinate system. All three options solve the measurement problem technically, but add complexity to the installation. A wedge-shaped support or long screws with nuts might easily also be considered as makeshifts or temporary. Numerical conversion on the other hand requires measurement of the mounting angle, feeding in this info into the processing system and more data processing. The latter could also be accomplished by using of some kind of automatic re-calibration, but also this requires time, knowledge on the status of the body on which the motion detector is attached, caution and obviously also additional data processing. If the body is a vehicle, boat etc. re-calibration can typically only be done when the body is stationary or in another known state.
In conclusion—If highest possible measurement performance is required and if motion detectors with traditional enclosures must be installed on inclined surfaces, this installation work can in practice currently only be accomplished by a professional technician, who carefully takes the special conditions into consideration. This increases the overall system price and which is especially noticeable in systems intended for price critical volume or consumer applications such as small or medium sized yachts and boats.